Wangfujing Shopping Street

A 15-minute brisk walk to the east of the Forbidden City is a pedestrian friendly street lined with Chinese inspired buildings replete with local and international consumer goods. Locals and foreign tourists and expats flock to Wangfujing for different reasons. Evidently, Wangfujing offers a lot more than it already can. Yuppies with a lot of dough to spare for the latest fashion and accessories abound as well as bargain and souvenir hunters. If you feel you have had enough of Chinese characters and have the urge to read your own script, try the foreign language bookstore towards the end of the street at Wangfujing Dajie. There, you may find books in many different languages. For gastronomic adventures, restaurants and food stalls are located on the side streets or at the back of the tall buildings. There's one street behind the south east entrance where people can eat in dainty verandas while watching local artists perform a Beijing opera on an improvised stage perched on a second storey porch. If not, a couple of the department stores along this stretch have cheap Chinese fastfoods at the top floors. Still, if you prefer a more formal, more metropolitan ambiance, the Oriental Plaza houses a number of western and eastern restaurants catering fancy dining at a higher price. On the other hand, you may just want to find a bench on the sidewalk, rest your weary feet and watch people come and go; and kill the time away wondering what were you doing sitting while the world moves!